Matthew Deitch Ph.D., Senior CEMAR Environmental Scientist discusses hydrology

Check out the new video from the Russian River Coho Water Resources Partnership, The Coho Partnership - Helping Our Watersheds for Both Fish and People. This five-minute video provides an overview of the Partnership's work in key Russian River tributary watersheds that demonstrates there is enough water for both farms and fish. CEMAR, a member of the Partnership, manages the streamflow monitoring and watershed modeling components of this multi-year project funded through CEMAR by the  National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.  

No matter how fast we are able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is now clear that the global energy imbalance we have created will cause climate change. How can the Bay Area organize itself and work efficiently toward adapting to this different future? CEMAR's Executive Director Andrew Gunther has been selected to be part of a team working on a grant from the Kresge Foundation to develop plans for adaptation to climate change in the Bay Area. The team will examine issues related to development and application of scientific information (CEMAR's portion of the project), social equity, and governance structure.

CEMAR, along with its partner Trout Unlimited, is pursuing our efforts to demonstrate how small scale water storage projects can provide improved water supply reliability and healthier streams with a second round of funding from the California State Coastal Conservancy to continue the  Coastal Streamflow Stewardship Project. Focus will be on implementing streamflow improvement and water conservation projects in four focal watersheds: Mattole River headwaters, San Gregorio Creek, Pescadero Creek, and Little Arthur Creek.    

Before and after photos of the construction of a small scale water storage project CEMAR helped develop in Sonoma County.

The Bay Area Ecosystems Climate Change Consortium, a regional multi-agency collaborative coordinated by CEMAR's Andrew Gunther, designed and hosted a workshop entitled Climate Smart Actions for Natural Resources Managers. Over 130 regional professionals attended the workshop, which was co-sponsored by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, the Coastal Conservancy, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Dr. Gunther worked with a broad spectrum of interested parties to develop an agenda to help local natural resource managers learn how they can understand and address the vulnerability of their lands/resources to climate change. The workshop included fascinating and important case studies of projects that are already taking action in our region to prepare for climate change, and the presentations and case study summaries are available on-line at the California Climate Commons.

CEMAR's authoritative and ground-breaking analyses of steelhead in California continue to be relied upon by government agencies and other experts working on restoration issues. Most recently, CEMAR's work identifying priority watersheds for steelhead restoration (what we've called "anchor watersheds"), was used by the  California State Coastal Conservancy in their Strategic Plan. In addition, our analysis of the historical distribution of steelhead in California was a key reference for expert analysis of steelhead in the Santa Ynez River that was published in the December Bulletin of the  Southern California Academy of Sciences. 

For more information, visit CEMAR's website at  www.cemar.org or contact Linda Tandle at [email protected] or 510-420-4565 ext. 107.